April TIF, Finished

Sometimes I have been confronted with changes that, at the time, seemed very big; moving house, changing jobs, starting/ending relationships. I worried and fretted about them, going over and over the 'what ifs'. Later when life settled back down, I usually found that fundamentally nothing had changed at all - the sun still comes up every day and the seasons come and go just as they always did, life goes on.

I wanted create circles for this challenge, particularly with the flower stitcher. I wanted to explore how small changes altered the outcome without actually changing the fundament shape. By adjusting the flower stitcher, the circles can be made bigger or smaller; by selecting different stitches I can alter their appearance, but at the end of the day, they remain circles. In that respect, my April TIF fulfils my brief, but I have not found this design very satisfying, neither the process nor the outcome. I think at heart, I am a hand stitcher!






Although this was stitched as a single cloth, I always intended to cut it into five smaller sections. At our last Embroiderers’ Guild meeting we were asked to each make five bookmarks, which will be used to promote the Embroiderer’s Guild. These were intended as my offering. I was certainly not half-hearted about creating them, but I am half-hearted about using them because I don’t personally like them very much.

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Long before Sharon set the challenge for April, I had been giving careful consideration to making a significant change in my life. It is not a necessary change but to me a desirable one. I’m not unhappy with things the way they are, and hope that they will remain just the same, so I cannot understand why it is so important for me to make this change. After a great deal of thought, at the end of February I finally put my proposal to J and he said he was happy to accept, just as long as nothing changes!

Happy Stitching